APIA – The police in Samoa have charged a 33 year-old man with attempted murder after a large narcotics haul which left a police officer injured.

Another man has been charged with possessing narcotics.

The charges come following a car chase with the police to seize narcotics alleged to have been carried by the men in their vehicle.

Acting police commissioner, Fauono Talalelei Tapu is reluctant to reveal the street value or quantity of the confiscated drugs.

There have been reports the police were involved in a gun battle with the two suspects during the car chase.

A large amount of marijuana was found in the vehicle driven by the two men who shot at a Police vehicle following a chase on the west side of Upolu just before Christmas.

Assistant Police Commissioner Fauono told the Samoa Observer that the men are still in Police custody and are scheduled to appear before the Court on January 19.

Asked if they have been kept in custody because they are a risk to members of the public, Fauono said this was “part of the reason”.

The other reason is that “this makes it easier to find them when they are needed to appear in court”.

“The investigation is being carried out by the Criminal Investigation Division,” he said.

“When the men were searched after the shoot out, the Police found a large amount of marijuana in the vehicle. Illegal weapons were also found during the search.”

The incident happened late December when the two men allegedly drove into a family’s front yard at Fasito’o-uta, parked their vehicle and waited for the police vehicle chasing after them to drive in.

When they saw the police vehicle they started shooting at it.

One of the three police officers was hit. He was hospitalised but has been discharged.

Members of the family whose front yard became the battle ground for the police and the suspects were left badly shaken.

The mother who gave her name but asked for it to be withheld from publication for fear of repercussions from the suspects said her family is lucky that no one was killed.

The woman, her husband, daughter and a grandchild were at home when a vehicle which had been chased by the Police stopped “dangerously close to our front door”.

“As soon as the first vehicle stopped, another car turned in and that’s when the men in the first vehicle started shooting towards the second car,” she said. “There were three men in the second car and one of them was hit.”

Confused about what was happening, the mother yelled to her daughter to call the police.

“It was only then that one of the men in the second car yelled out that they were police officers,” she said.

“I understand that at the time no one was at their right mind because everything was a rush but we would have appreciated some form of indication that these people were police officers.”